Category Archives: Interpretive Mode

To commemorate 100 posts published on Tuesday’s Tips For Staying In The Target Language, here are some Top 10 (and 15) Lists. In other news, I’ll be taking some time off from publishing these posts every Tuesday. Click here if you care to contribute opinions, comments and feedback regarding the future of this blog on a survey.

All you need is crayons (for each student) and a worksheet that looks like this:

For Novice Low or Novice Mid

Walk around the classroom. As you give one worksheet to each student, say sentences like these, “Here’s a paper for you. A paper for you. A paper for you. And one for you. Here’s a paper for you. For you, and you and you.”

Then, pass out crayons in the same way: “Crayons for you. For you. Here are some crayons for you…etc.”

Once the materials are passed out, display a sample worksheet at the front of the classroom. Hold a box of crayons in your own hands. Take out a red crayon and hold it up in the air. Motion for the students to do the same. As students are taking out their red crayons, say things like, “Good! Good Aiden! Good! Yes, red. Red. Red. The red crayon! Good Jessica…etc.”

Once all students are holding up the red crayon, have them repeat the word, “red,” after you. Then, turn your back to the class and start coloring in space #1 on the rainbow with the red crayon. When you finish coloring that section, start walking around the room saying, “Good Aiden! Good. Yes. Red. Good.” Hold up a few papers of students who are coloring in space #1 correctly.

When most students are done, hold up your red crayon and say, “Goodbye red!” and put the crayon back in the box. Keep saying, “Goodbye red,” until all students have put away their red crayon.

Go back to the displayed sample worksheet and say, “Okay. Number 1…red,” or, “Okay. Number 1 was red.” Point to space #2 and say, “Number TWO. TWO. Number TWO is orange. Take out orange.” (Hold up the orange crayon.)

Make a coloring motion with the orange crayon and say, “Class. Color #2 orange.” (You may want to say the sentence a few times.) Turn around and start coloring space #2 with the orange crayon.

Repeat this pattern until the rainbow activity is finished. If you want (and if your students would like it) make up a little tune that you can sing while the students are coloring using ONLY the L2 color and number words. (i.e. “Number 1…red. Number 1…red. Number 2…orange. Number 2…orange…etc.”)

After the materials are passed out, hold up a crayon and say things like, “Aiden. What color is this? Is this color red or is this color orange? Aiden. Point to something else in this class that is the color red.” (Aiden points to something red.) Teacher says, “Good Aiden. Yes. That flag is red.” Teacher turns to address the whole class and says, “Class. Take out the color red.” As students are taking out the red crayon say things like, “Not the blue crayon. NOT the green crayon. Don’t take out the purple crayon. The RED crayon. The RED crayon. Take out the RED crayon. Good! Yes! Yes! Like Jessica. Good Jessica! Yes class. Take out the RED crayon.”

Ideas For Interpersonal Mode

After you’ve done the rainbow lesson as a whole class, pass out blank worksheets and give instructions for students to work in pairs. Tell the class that they will color the rainbows with mix-matched colors. “Space #1 WON’T be RED. It will be a different color. It will be the color that your partner tells you.” Pass out a small piece of paper to all the Partner #1s in the class and tell them to keep it hidden. The paper will tell them what mix-matched colors to use for all the rainbow spaces.

#1 – Green

#2 – Red

#3 – Purple

Etc.

Walk around the room and make sure each pair of students is speaking only in L2 and coloring according to Partner #1’s instructions.

Intermediate Mid – Advanced Mid

Pass out the worksheet and the crayons. Instruct students to color space #1 RED, space #2 ORANGE and space #3 YELLOW. Tell them not to color spaces 4-6. Write your instructions on the board and have them start coloring.

While they are coloring, SECRETLY change your written instructions by erasing the word, “yellow” and replacing it with the L2 word for “purple.” On your page, color space #1 RED, space #2 ORANGE and space #3 PURPLE.

When all the students are done, start walking around the room with a confused look on your face. Take one of the students’ rainbows (choose a student who is confident and NOT easily embarrassed) and say things like, “Tyler. You colored #1 RED, #2 ORANGE and #3 YELLOW! Yellow!? Why did you color it YELLOW!?” (Let Tyler answer.) Then say, “No, Tyler. I did NOT say to color it YELLOW. I asked you to color it PURPLE! See! Look at the instructions I wrote on the board!”

Let the students start venting their frustration at you in the target language. Encourage them to say things like, “No, Miss. You did NOT say to color it PURPLE. You must have changed your instructions!” Argue back and say, “Why?! Why would I change something like that!? And we all know that the third color of the rainbow is NOT yellow. It’s obviously PURPLE. All of you don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Continue the argument for as long as you’d like. Repeat the incident with instructions for coloring spaces 4-6.

Ideas For Presentational Mode

Ask the students to write a story about a mom/dad doing this rainbow activity with her/his child. Tell the students that their L2 narrative must include dialogue. Have them model their story after the frustrating experience they just had with following your rainbow-coloring instructions. Give them some sample sentences like, “Son…you shouldn’t have colored #2 YELLOW. I told you a thousand times that it was supposed to be ORANGE. I told you that #1 was supposed to be RED and #2 was supposed to be ORANGE. It would be better if you listen more carefully in the future.”

In this PART 7 post you’ll find a list of ideas to help you develop lesson plans for teaching…:

…the verb “TO GO” (in the future, present & past tenses).

…the question word: “Where?”

…the days of the week.

Don’t feel limited to what is written below. Let these simple ideas launch you into developing more creative, thoughtful, and effective ideas.

The only thing you really need to remember is:

“Our main approach/principle for teaching grammar while staying in the target language is…

…give students MEANINGFUL EXPERIENCES in which the target grammar structures are used often enough to be noticed and acquired.”

Instructional Activities/Strategies

1- Days Of The Week – Introduction or Review

First, show a calendar that has the days of the week written in the target language. (If you have a way to project it, it’s fun to use Google Calendar and change the settings so that the days of the week show up in the language that you teach.) Showing the days of the week on a calendar, and pointing to each one as you say them, is a very simple way of making them comprehensible. (Side note: For the purposes of this lesson, students don’t need to have the days of the week memorized, nor do the students need to prove that they know the direct translations of the days of the week. It’s enough that they know that you are talking about days.)

Show the students an oversized calendar and have them repeat the days of the week in the target language.

Next, write/post the days of the week (from left to right) on the board. Write them as spread out as possible with enough space below to record some data.

2- “TO GO” – Future Tense

Pick a day of the week. Under that particular day, write (and at the same time, say) a few sentences like the ones listed, in bold, below. Each sentence should have the name of a student in it. At first pick students who tend to be more confident than the others. Each sentence should also have the name of a place that students would really like to go. (i.e. McDonald’s, Starbucks, Six Flags…etc. The purpose of picking locations like these is to peak the students’ interest. It’s important to peak students’ interest because, depending on their proficiency level, they may have no clue what you are saying/writing. Remember, when students have no clue what you’re saying, they will quickly lose interest. Avoid losing the interest of your students by using names of their classmates and by saying the names of places that everyone recognizes and would like to go to.)

“On Thursday, Laura will go to Starbucks.”

“On Thursday, Emily will go to Starbucks.”

“On Thursday, Aidan will go to McDonalds.”

On Thursday, Trista will go to Six Flags.”

After all the sentences are written on the board, step back and say (in the target language), “Wow.Okay. Great. Laura. Okay. Laura. On Thursday, Laura will go to Starbucks. And Emily. Yes. Emily. Laura and Emily. On Thursday, Laura and Emily will go to Starbucks. And Aidan. On Thursday Aidan will go to McDonalds. And on Thurdsay, Trista will go to Six Flags. Great. Wow. Great. Okay.”

Finally, you may want to ask the class to read the sentences on the board out loud in unison. (Side note: At this point the teacher does not expect the students to know what they are saying. However the students are still willing to say it and stay engaged because everyone is thinking, “Okay, I’m not sure what’s going on…but it has something to do with my friends Laura, Emily, Aidan and Trista…and it has something to do with these fun places. What’s gonna happen? Let me see and find out.” The names of students (and of exciting places) are keeping the students engaged, even though they aren’t sure what’s being said in the target language. Meanwhile, something very exciting is happening. While student interest is peaked, Teacher is introducing the target grammar structures.)

(Side note #2: The fun thing about moments like these is that Teacher gets to introduce and repeat the target grammar structure without the students really even noticing. The students aren’t actively paying attention to the future tense form of the verb “TO GO”. They aren’t actively noticing that you taught them a 3rd person plural conjugation for the future tense of “TO GO”. They are waiting (some of them excitedly waiting) to find out what these classmates are going to do…and what in the world Starbucks, McDonalds and Six Flags have to do with anything). While they are thinking about something exciting and curious, the teacher is intentionally teaching but the students are learning passively. The students start learning without trying to learn. It’s an amazing experience both for the instructor and learner. Learning L2 by accident! When my students have moments like these, sometimes I like telling them, “L2 class is like T.V…all you have to do is watch.”)

3- “TO GO” – Present Tense

Teacher pulls out teacher-made signs/printouts that have the words “Starbucks,” “McDonalds” and “Six Flags” in big attractive letters. Teacher takes the Starbucks sign and hangs it up at one end of the room. Teacher says, “Class: Starbucks. This is Starbucks. Right here is Starbucks. (Teacher motions/points to a defined imaginary place next to the Starbucks sign that is the part of the classroom called Starbucks.)

Teacher repeats sentences like these while she hangs up the other signs in different parts of the room.

Now every student knows where Starbucks, McDonalds and Six Flags are located in the classroom.

Teacher walks back to the middle of the room, shrugs her shoulders and asks the class, “Where is Starbucks?” When students start pointing to the Starbucks sign, Teacher uses the Two-Hand Method to help them answer the question, “Where is Starbucks?” with the phrase, “There it is.”

Teacher continues asking about the location of the other signs, “Where is McDonalds/Six Flags?” and students answer appropriately by pointing to the sign and saying, “There it is.”

Teacher goes to the sentences on the board and reads all four while she looks at them.

Teacher looks away from the sentences and looks directly at Laura and says, “Laura, on Thursday, where do you go? On Thursday do you go to Starbucks? On Thursday do you go to McDonalds? OR on Thurdsay do you go to Six Flags?” When Laura answers with the word Starbucks (because it’s so obvious) Teacher writes the answer in complete sentence form and uses the Two-Hand Method to help Laura say, “On Thursday I go to Starbucks.” Teacher praises Laura for her complete sentence answer saying, “Great. Good Laura. Good job Laura.” Teacher motions for Laura to stand and says, “Laura, stand up.” Teacher motions for Laura to walk to the spot on the classroom floor beneath the “Starbucks” sign and says, “Go to Starbucks.” Teacher gives Laura a reward/incentive for answering/participating/going-first. (Side note: At this point, Laura may feel very “put on the spot”. She may have felt a bit embarrassed to be going first and to be instructed to stand up and walk in front of all her peers. (Again, that’s why Teacher should pick confident students to go first for activities like these.) Teacher should have a high-desire reward to give to Laura for going first. An even better reward situation would be to pick two high-quality rewards and say, “Good Laura. Good job. Do you want ___(reward #1) or ____ (reward #2)?” Have class give Laura a round of applause. If any of Laura’s peers acts obnoxious or does something to make her feel awkward…there must be a significant consequence…or else no other student will want to participate because they will feel afraid of their peers making fun of them.)

Teacher continues by looking away from Laura and directly at Emily and repeats the line of questioning/script that she used with Laura (in the paragraph above).

Teacher continues this pattern with Aidan and then Trista.

Before moving on to step #4 Teacher may choose to do all of steps 2 (future tense) and 3 (present tense) over again with new student volunteers. The purpose of the repetition is to make sure that the whole class has a good understanding of what’s happening before introducing the new target grammar structures from step 4 (below).

4- “TO GO” – Past Tense

Once steps 2 and 3 are done, Teacher should make sure all student volunteers are seated. Teacher should write the following questions/answers on the board and have a discussion with students about what happened (past tense) in steps 2 and 3:

“On Thursday, who went to Starbucks?”

“On Thursday, _____ went to Starbucks.”

“On Thursday, who went to McDonalds?”

Etc.

Getting Everyone Involved

Once the students feel moderately familiar with steps 2, 3 and 4 it will be easier to get everyone involved. Try some of the following ideas:

Do a whole week in fast-motion. Make a list of the days of the week on the board. Write down a long list of sentences in the target language (future tense) delineating which students will go to which places on each of the particular days. Teacher can point to any particular day of the week on the calendar and see if each of the students know where to go based on the sentences written on the board. At any point Teacher can stop and ask questions in the future, present and past tenses. When practicing the target grammar structures it would be good to have the questions and answers written/posted somewhere conspicuous.

Ask students to write down or say (in the TL) where their peers will go on different days of the week. After a few of these directions have been written down or said, their classmates will have to walk around to the correct places in the room.

Recycle this activity throughout the year. Call the activity something catchy in the target language (i.e. “Let’s Go!” or “Where Will We Go Today?”). Give the students chances to review/practice these grammar structures at random times throughout the year.

Assessment Ideas

After students are familiar with steps 2-4, start recording whether they walk to the appropriate spot in the room when the cue/direction is given. Use a rubric to assign a grade based on whether they walked to the correct spot needing help or not, or after walking to incorrect spot(s) or not, etc.

Write a “model email to a friend” on the board in front of all the students. The email should contain information about where you go on certain days of the week. Ask students to answer comprehension questions based on the information included in the “model email to a friend.”

Ask students to write text messages to each other or to you. You can do this on real devices or, if that is not possible, make a “text-message-conversation-template” to print out and have students fill in the conversation bubbles in pairs. Students should use the target grammar structures to ask and answer questions about their plans for the week and where they will go or where they would like to go. Students can also ask their friends questions like, “Where did you go last Saturday?”

REFLECT: What did the students experience during this activity?

Students got to get up and walk around the room.

Students repeatedly heard, read and said different forms of the verb for “TO GO.”

Unit assessments were meaningful and generally non-threatening to reluctant students.

Digital assessment option allows students to practice collaborating and to learn 21st century skills.

The teacher stayed in the target language.

The students realized that they could not only survive in an L2-immersion environment but that it can be fun.

Have you tried out any of these grammar teaching suggestions from Tuesday’s Tips for Staying in the Target Language? How did it go? Leave comments below or add to the conversation on twitter by using #langchat (for general language teaching comments) and/or #TL90plus (for“staying in the target language” comments).

In this post we will discuss how to stay in the target language while helping students learn how L2 sentence components change when the quantity of an noun is changed.

Remember:

Some people say it’s nearly impossible to teach grammar while staying in the target language. This IS the case if you feel like your job is to directly teach grammar. However, a simple change in approach (as demonstrated in these posts) makes it much easier to help your students use correct L2 grammar structures. Notice, in the script below, that the model teacher is not trying to directly teach grammar. Instead, she’s helping students have a MEANINGFUL EXPERIENCE in which the target grammar structures are used often enough to be noticed and acquired. If this is your strategy, learning grammar doesn’t have to be a headache for your students.

(Note: The following Part 3 transcript is written in English, although you should imagine the teacher saying all of her statements in the language that you teach. i.e. French, Russian, Arabic, etc.)

Teacher reviews grammar structures from Part 1 and Part 2 of this series by facilitating the following activity:

“Who has Cheerios? Who has Lucky Charms? Who doesn’t have Cinnamon Toast Crunch?”

“______ has Cheerios. ____ doesn’t have Cinnamon Toast Crunch.”

Teacher passes out some individual boxes of the three cereal varieties to students who are sitting quietly and attentively. (Remember, behavior management is a HUGE factor affecting how successful you are at facilitating foreign language acquisition by staying in the target language.)

Teacher walks around the room/circle saying the following phrases: “You… (points at student) …have Cheerios. And you… (points at another student) …have Cheerios. I… (points to self) …don’t have Cheerios. You… (points at another student) …don’t have Cheerios. But you DO HAVE Lucky Charms. Mmmm. Delicious. I… (points to self) …I want Lucky Charms. Yes. I want Lucky Charms. Give me Lucky Charms.” (Student shakes head “NO” because he doesn’t want to give them up. Teacher helps him say, “They are FOR ME!” by using the Two-Hand-Method.) Teacher, in a surprised voice, says, “The Lucky Charms are for YOU? For you??!? But I want them. I want Lucky Charms. (Teacher helps student say (again) “They are FOR ME!”.) Teacher gives up and says, “Okay. The Lucky Charms are for you.”

Teacher walks back to the board and asks the first of several rounds of questions to various students in the class. “Roger has Cheerios. Stacey has Cheerios. Lauren has Cheerios. But…who has Lucky Charms? Does Elvin have Lucky Charms? Does Daequan have Lucky Charms? WHO… (Teacher raises her hand to imply that she’s looking for a volunteer to answer the question) …has Lucky Charms?” Student answers. If the answer is not complete, teacher points to the target answer, that is written on the board, and helps the student say it in a complete L2 sentence. Teacher continues, “More. More. More. Who else has Lucky Charms?” Teacher continues this questioning pattern with all of the target questions that are written on the board.

When it’s time to move on, Teacher focuses the attention on herself by opening a bag of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Teacher starts to eat the cereal and says, “Delicious. Delicious. I like this. I like this a lot.” Teacher walks around the room with the open bag and says, “Who wants Cinnamon Toast Crunch? Who wants some? Who wants some?” Teacher reminds students how to say, “I do! I want some! I want Cinnamon Toast Crunch!” by using the Two-Hand-Method.

Teacher focuses on quantity by saying, “How many? How many do you want? How many Cinnamon Toast Crunch pieces do you want? Do you want one? Do you want four? Do you want seven?” If Student says an incomplete answer, use the Two-Hand-Method to help him say, “I want seven.” When Student says the complete sentence, Teacher counts out seven pieces of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Teacher says, “Eat. Go ahead. Eat seven.” Teacher prompts Student to say, “Thank you,” and, “Delicious.” Teacher looks at the rest of the class and says, “Who else? Who else wants some? Who else wants Cinnamon Toast Crunch? I want Cinnamon Toast Crunch and he wants some (Teacher points to the student that ate seven). Who else wants Cinnamon Toast Crunch?” Teacher helps students answer with complete L2 sentences. Teacher says to Student #2, “How many pieces do you want? Do you want one piece? Do you want 2 pieces? Do you want one piece or four pieces? Do you want one piece or six pieces?” Teacher helps Student #2 answer with a complete sentence. Teacher continues this pattern of questioning for as long as she thinks is best.

REFLECT: What did the students experience during this activity?

Students saw how the noun (in this case “pieces”) ending changes based on how many “pieces” of cereal they wanted.